Winter is gone, 35 CES recaps winter wrath Published May 8, 2012 By Airman 1st Class Zachary Kee 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan -- The 35th Civil Engineer Squadron held a post-season snow and ice control committee meeting in the 35 CES conference room at Misawa Air Base, Japan April 24 to discuss snow and ice removal procedures from the last winter season. The meeting was held so commanders and other servicemembers could share their input on how to better remove snow on base. "The purpose of the meeting was to inform, coordinate, establish priorities and strategies to reduce conflict and enhance snow removal operations," said Master Sgt. Chad Wagner, 35 CES heavy repair superintendent. The heavy repair work section is responsible for snow removal. When removing snow, areas with higher priority are taken care of first, said Wagner. Priority one is the base's main roads, flightline and runways, so one of the base's main missions, launching the Wing's F-16 Fighting Falcons, is not interfered with, said Wagner. Next are the remainder of the airfield, secondary base roads, side-roads leading to housing and base parking lots, which are priorities two and three. It is the servicemembers and CES employees' responsibility to take care of these priorities and maintain snow and ice removal around the base. However, this winter, manpower was not available as much as it was needed, said Wagner. "We hit an employment freeze this year where we could not hire as many civilians as we had hoped to work the equipment and to maintain the roads," said Lt. Col. Dwayne Robison, 35 CES commander. All personnel have to be certified before they can use the equipment to plow or take care of the roads, said Robison. Servicemembers receive the training, but civilian employees cannot work with the heavy equipment until they are trained. To overcome the obstacle of being short manned in civilian employees, the 35 CES worked hard to make more with less. They were able to task three Airmen from their primary responsibilities, adding to the team of equipment controllers who fought against the winter weather. The average snowfall for a winter season in Misawa is 123 inches, however this past winter was abnormally brutal for Misawa. The snowfall this year was nearly double the normal average at 222.9 inches, said Wagner. When taking care of all the fallen snow, different chemical agents and heavy equipment are used to keep the roads as free from snow and ice as possible, said Wagner. The amount of chemicals used for the year was 73,672 gallons of potassium acetate, 606 tons of ice slicer and 22 tons of magnesium chloride. The total cost of maintenance through the last winter season was estimated at $738,000. According to Wagner, with no changes in funding and manning for the next 2012-2013 winter season, the 35 CES will be able to support the base just as well when the snow falls later this year.